My 2¢ on Dehydrating Apples: a How-To with 7 Tips

Making apple chips, or dried apples, is super easy to do at home with a dehydrator.  (I use a Nesco Snackmaster.) Here are the basic steps:

1. Select firm apples with as little bruising as possible.
   
2. Wash and core the apples.
   
3. Slice apples thinly and as evenly as possible (about 1/4-inch).
   
4. Places slices in lemon juice and water mixture.  A 1/4 cup juice to a quart of water is a good ratio.  This helps to deter browning.
   
5. Season (with cinnamon, for example) if desired.  Place slices on dehydrator trays in such a way that air can circulate around them.
   
6. Dry at 140°F for an average of 12 hours.

What I learned after my first attempt at drying apples at home:

• It's easy! Don't stress over every little step.  Forget the lemon juice? That's ok.  Your slices aren't perfectly even? That's ok.  Some of your slices are touching on the dehydrator trays? That's ok! You should still end up with a nice finished product.
  
• Be picky about your apples.  If you get a ho-hum flavored apple from the grocery store and dry it, it's still going to be a ho-hum flavored apple.  We now live about 3 miles from an apple orchard that's been around for 70 years.  Can you guess where my next batch to dry is coming from?
  
• The skin is pretty tough after drying.  Next time, I'm going to peel my apples.
  
• The lemon juice and water mixture works.  I had no browning of the apples using this method.  Having said that, there are plenty of people who skip this step.  Try some both ways.  If it doesn't make a big enough difference for you, you'll save time in future batches.
  
• I used a Granny Smith (tart) type of apple.  Didn't care for cinnamon on it.  Might want to use a sweeter apple in the future.
  
• Be flexible with your drying times.  External factors will play a role in how long it takes to dry your apples.  So don't be hard and fast about it.  Check on the drying progress from time to time.  You want a pliable and flexible apple slice with no signs of moisture.  If you are planning on storing them long term, over-drying is better than under-drying.
  
• I store my dried apples in pint-sized mason jars.  The ones I made 10 months ago have not lost any flavor -- still delicious!

Shared at The Art of Homemaking Mondays, Thank Goodness It's Monday, Inspiration Monday, Create Link Inspire, Tuesdays with a Twist, The Homemaking Party, Thrifty Thursday, From the Farm, and Chain "Linky" Climb.



From my mountaintop to yours!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a very small commission if you click a link and buy something. This helps support my mountain homestead dream as well as my blogging activities, and the price you pay will be no different than if you arrived at the same destination through any other link. My opinions are my own, to be sure. If I link to a product and say I like it -- I truly like it! Thanks for reading, following, and supporting Stephlin's Mountain.

How to Make and Store Your Own Dried Orange Zest

Have I ever told you about my love for my dehydrator? (Heh, Heh, of course I have.) Well here's yet another task it can handle for you!

How to Make and Store Dried Orange Zest

The zest of an orange is the outermost, colorful part of the peel. It contains concentrated, highly flavorful oils great for baking delicious sweets and breads. You can most certainly use it in savory cooking, as well.

All you need to do to make zest is remove this colorful part from the orange. You can do this by using a knife to cut strips, a simple grater, or a utensil more specifically designed for zesting. (I have a Microplane and wouldn't trade it for the world.) The important thing to remember is not to go into the pith, or white part of the peel. This has an unappealing flavor. Also, don't forget to wash your fruit before zesting.

If you're lucky and find yourself with a lot of oranges, making a large quantity of dried zest is made easier by using a food dehydrator. (I have a dwarf orange tree right outside on the patio. It's producing intoxicatingly fragrant blooms and fruit -- I'm impatiently waiting for those babies to ripen.)

Additional note: I also watch for oranges (or lemons or limes -- you can zest them too, ya know) in the reduced section of my produce department. I can sometimes find 3 lb. bags of oranges for 99¢!

To dry your zest, simply spread it out on a shelf of the dehydrator and set your temperature to 135°. Walk away and let it do its thing until the zest is completely dry. Alternately, you can use your oven if the temperature can be controlled to that low degree, and you have the time. You can also simply let the zest air dry on your counter top (I have no idea how long that would take, though).

BTW, if you end up with too many oranges to eat, run them through a juicer (this is mine). That's what I do. I then freeze the juice in these little stackable Ball freezer containers and pull one out to place in the refrigerator each night before I go to bed. Freshly squeezed juice is ready to drink in the morning.

Your fresh-dried orange zest can simply be stored in a jar with a tight lid in your pantry. I can't say exactly how long it will last. I can say I've had some in my pantry for a few months, and it still has flavor.

How much does it make / save? I got about an ounce out of three large oranges. I've seen this amount go for $3 - $4 in stores...made mine for pennies!

Shared at All Things Thursday, Fabulously Frugal Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, and some of these other fine hops.




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Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a very small commission if you click the link and buy something. This helps support my mountain homestead dream as well as my blogging activities, and the price you pay will be no different than if you arrived at the same destination through any other link. My opinions are my own, to be sure. If I link to a product and say I like it -- I truly like it! :-) Thanks for reading and following Stephlin's Mountain.

Dehydrating Onions for Fresh Flavor with a Long Shelf Life

Too many onions? So many you know you'll never use them before they go bad? Or, you want to take advantage of a sale, but don't for fear of rot and waste?

Get rescued by your food dehydrator! Turn those onions into dehydrated onions and onion powder. The fresh flavor will remain, and you'll have the added benefit of a product that lasts for months.

I was at Aldi's the other day and picked some sweet onions they had on sale at 79¢ for 2 pounds. I already had some dehydrated onion in the pantry, but I've been wanting to add onion powder to the arsenal. Having each of these on hand is pretty important to me. First of all, I'm rather lazy in the kitchen when it comes to savory food preparation (but I'll happily spend all day making sweets -- what's up with that?). And second, I detest the burn that results from chopping an onion. I usually beg kindly request someone else to do it for me.

If you remember (or pinned!) my tomato powder posts, you might have the gist of what we're going to do. A difference, however, can be found in the initial preparation of the onions. With the tomatoes, I used my mandolin. For the onions, I used my food processor (links to exact one I purchased six months ago). It has a wide mouth, so I could easily feed it large chunks of onion to slice finely and quickly. Minimal effort, minimal tears!

After the super fast slicing, I quickly loaded up my dehydrator. A few tears were shed, and a couple of nostrils burned a bit -- nothing I couldn't handle. :-)

Since I was going to suck every bit of water out of these guys, I didn't worry about touching or layering. In fact, I forced all of the sliced onions onto just four shelves. If I had more (I really should get some), I would have thinned the layers so they would have dried quicker. The onions literally took a full day to dry at 135°.

If you are looking simply for dehydrated onion -- you're done! Just break up the pieces and throw them in a jar. Use them in anything and everything that you are already adding a bit of liquid to. They are just as flavorful as a freshly chopped onion, and even retain the texture! Here's some I jarred up a while back.

My end goal for today was onion powder, so I pressed on simply by filling my blender and letting her rip on a high speed.

Um, may I interject here? I'm starting to think I need a new blender. Mine is at least 17 years old -- no joke -- and I really thought I was going to burn the motor up the other day when trying to make a smoothie. Any cheap frugal suggestions?

...And we're back to the onion powder.  Well, really, we're done.  That's it.  Store the powder in a jar in your pantry.  Out of 4 pounds of onions (minus 2 singles I left for someone else to chop if they so desired), I got a full 1/2 pint jar of powder.

Shared at Simple Saturdays Blog Hop, Simply Natural Saturdays, and some of these fine hops.

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Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a very small commission if you click the link and buy something. This helps support my mountain homestead dream as well as my blogging activities, and the price you pay will be no different than if you arrived at the same destination through any other link. My opinions are my own, to be sure. If I link to a product and say I like it -- I truly like it! :-) Thanks for reading and following Stephlin's Mountain.

How to Make Tomato Powder for Fresh Tomato Paste and Sauce

A couple of months ago, really on a whim, I bought a food dehydrator. And, guess what. I. LOVE. It. Really. I'm talkin' starry eyed love. I've made dried strawberries, made banana chips, dehydrated onions, and made garlic powder, for starters. Oh, the fun I've had!

Now, I don't have a garden that's producing a ton of tomatoes (yet!), but last week my local Aldi's had a great deal on some fresh Romas.  They were 79¢ for 20 oz.  That's a wonderful price for my area. If you do have a ton of tomatoes coming out of your garden (or somehow end up with more than you know what to do with), this is another great way to preserve them.

I've dried tomatoes before, but stopped short of making powder.  I became enamored with the tomato chips I had created when B started eating them straight off the dehydrator.  So I packaged them just as they were and put them in the pantry.  Imagine how clever I thought I was when I saw a post by Christy Jordan at Southern Plate talking about the same thing!

Anyway, back to the powder. It's so darn simple.

First, take your washed tomatoes and slice them up. I used a cheap nothing-fancy mandolin with a thin slice blade. (Here's a link to one like it at Amazon, but mine cost even less. I got it for about $10 at Bed, Bath, & Beyond. It does have fewer blades, though.)

Next, I loaded up my dehydrator. I did put the tomato slices in a single layer, of course, but wasn't too picky about them touching.

And I dried them to a crisp.  Since I sliced them thin, it only took about 7 hours at 135°.

Finally, I threw them in a blender and pulverized them to a powder!

So easy, right?! A little under 5 pounds of tomatoes netted me about a half pint of powder. Come back tomorrow, and I'll show you how to reconstitute your fresh tomato powder into fresh paste and sauce. Yum!

Shared at Green Thumb Thursday, From the Farm Blog Hop, Homestead Barn Hop, and Tasty Tuesdays.

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Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a very small commission if you click the link and buy something. This helps support my blogging activities, and the price you pay will be no different than if you arrived at the same destination through any other link. My opinions are my own, to be sure. If I link to a product and say I like it -- I truly like it! :-) Thanks for reading and following Stephlin's Mountain.